Our Team
Jim Swift
Hello, I’m James S. Swift, PS. Please – call me Jim. I’m a Professional Surveyor duly licensed to practice in the State of Indiana, USA. My day job is locating the best evidence of the Public Land Survey System in Boone County, Indiana. Essentially, I hunt for the stones which mark the corners of the mile by mile land section grid. It’s good work. Interesting, immersed in history, more outdoors than desk work. And I work with nice people. When not hunting for stones, I may be doing a number of things. I grow lovely gardens, thank you very much. I make music in a variety of settings – you might catch the lovely sounds of the local band NutHatch drifting over the Crawfordsville Farmer’s Market on a Saturday morning in the summer or you might be inspired by the heroic sounds of the Wabash College Pep Band at a football game in the fall. Together with my lovely wife, I’ve been raising a fine family for quite some time now which is easily the most fun and fascinating thing I have done. I’m told that I am a good public speaker and I enjoy occasional opportunities to share my stories with fellow surveyors or genealogy and history enthusiasts. I also research and write articles about history from my own map fanatic and surveyor perspective.
I’m from a large family. Indeed, I am the seventh son and youngest child of that family. With one sister, a mess of brothers, awesome parents and wonderful cousins, family is a big deal in my world. Our father was a mathematician. I attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where I focused on Mathematics for two years and History for two, earning a Bachelor of the Arts degree. It worked out well, as this stone hunting surveyor gig very much blends math and history. But surveying is a specialized field which requires specific skills and knowledge. Once I had settled on surveying as a career, I sought schooling in that discipline as well. Lucky for me, one of the great surveying programs in the world is just 30 miles from home. The School of Civil Engineering at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, is a great place to learn about surveying. Taking every related course I could find, I eventually added a Master of Science Degree in Geomatics. At Purdue I learned about fascinating subjects like Geodesy, Photogrammetry, and how the GPS system really works. Useful stuff for a 21st century surveyor.
If the Purdue degree doubled down on the math side of the math/history equation, this website pursues the history side. Here I pursue curious subjects like early French maps of North America and the treaty boundaries which underlie the Public Land Survey System.
That’s me. I can be reached by email at swiftjs@zoho.com or by calling our office at 765.307.2229.
Thanks.
Jim Swift
Henry Swift
Henry Swift is a Wabash College Alumnus from the class of 2018 who grew up in Crawfordsville and liked the area so much he decided to stay. After graduating in May, he went to work for Swift Land Consulting part time. The part time job quickly turned into a full time profession. He has been with Swift Land Consulting ever since and will continue to survey the local area. His other interests include drone photography, canoeing beautiful Sugar Creek, and traveling wherever the winds take him.
Jim and Henry Swift
Swift Land Consulting